Stand by our troops bumper sticker

As we were driving back from Palmerston to Ottawa, we stopped in Belleville for a quick bite to eat. When we were leaving the city, I noticed this bumper sticker on the car in front of us, while stopped at a red light. It stated: "If you don't stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them". After reading that statement, I felt the need to take a picture and use it for my blog post for today. I have family and friends that have served in the Canadian Forces, and I have family and friends that are currently active in the military, some even in Afghanistan now. I stand behind our troops 100%. I am humbled by their sacrifices and often think how lucky we are because of our Troops. On a side note, today was the last day for advance voting and I voted! Voting is a privilege that we have here in Canada, and if you haven't voted yet, please go vote on May 2nd. Think about what it means to vote, your vote counts! And if you don't vote, don't complain!

Spring growth

As I was walking to my front door, I noticed this in the front yard and had to take a photo. I've been living in this apartment for over 2 years, and each year I notice these tulips popping up. Last year they were cut as soon as the lawn cutting company came in and cut the grass. On an interesting note, yesterday I went for a walk around Dow's Lake and the tulips were just starting to come out of the ground compared (all I could see was some green stuff) to these which are already blooming (at least kind of blooming, they are proud and happy to be out!) These are the first flowers I've seen in the neighborhood. It's nice that they are in my front yard! :)

Dow's Lake is running low

Today I went out for a walk in the neighborhood and decided to walk around Dow's Lake. Surprisingly, the lake kind of felt empty. In the Spring time, the NCC/City drains the canal, try to lower the water, and this affects the water at Dow's Lake. We would think that with the Spring thaw, that the water levels would be up, however in this case the water is quite low. Dow's Lake is not a normal lake as it is a man made lake. Once upon a time it used to be a swamp, and now it's a pleasure space that is used at different times of year, skating in the winter, paddle boat in the summer, has tulips on one side during the tulip festival, etc. As you can see from my photo, the water is quite low...

Rainy Preston Street

Today was a wet and rainy day. At some point today I saw some freezing rain/mini hail falling down, which was kind of depressing. However, the day was saved when a few friends invited us out for dinner at IL Primo. The food was really nice, I had their gnocchi and some really good wine. We then proceeded to go to The Prescott to catch the rest of the Habs vs Bruins game, and I was happy to see the Habs win the second and be 2-0. On the way home, I took these pics of Preston, where you can see the wetness on the ground.

Librarian's nightmare

When I saw this today, I had to take a photo. However, I should state, that it wasn't in a library, but still made me think of the state of libraries and how some are saying we don't need books anymore. This was taken in a government building, nevertheless it does reflect a few of the government libraries that were shut down in the last few years.

Rainy Day Filter

Today, it started out being a cloudy day, the sun finally appeared for a little bit in the afternoon. However, the rain soon came and I decided to see how rain could act as a filter in my photos. I took a few photos, and selected this one below.

Should I go?

Should I also go down this path? I think so...

Opening in the sky

Tonight the sky was really nice and dark blue. I captured a variety of shots including movement, however this shot stood out as the key shot! These shots are all off the camera (small point and shoot) with no editing.

Here are a few other notables:

Spring rain

This day felt like a true Spring day in Ottawa. The day started out by being a very gray day, and it eventually progressed to rain and I tried to get a few photos of the rain and the misty/foggy Ottawa. This shot looks Ottawa facing North/East from Little Italy. You can see in the distance the foggy areas that cover the top of buildings.

The other photo is an attempt of capturing the rain falling on the ground and seeing the water accumulate on the ground. I also like the different looks of the ground and the pooling of the water.

Which road to choose?

Sometimes in life we are faced with different choices, which will get us to different places. Today's photo made me think of that, as I saw the train tracks split into three lines, and made me wonder, where did each line lead to? In life, our choices often bring us on different paths, and as the train tracks we don't always know the destination or what will happen at the end. However, if you do get on a train, hopefully you have an idea where you will be getting off, unless you have an open ticket, then you can always come back and stop where you really want to.

Wah Shing Store or Washing Store

I had seen this sign a while ago, and it made me laugh. It's a neat play on words, and when I first read it, I thought oh maybe a laundry mat, or something to do with cleaning. However, it's a grocery/utility/kitchen equipment store in Chinatown (at least it seems like that from the outside, as I've never gone inside). There are other neat spaces in and around Chinatown, I hope to get some more as the year progresses.

Toys and travel

As I waiting for my flight back to Ottawa at the Montreal airport, I decided to take a photo of my travel toys. It is crazy when I think about the technology that I carry around with me and what it is capable of doing.


Since I liked taking the photos in the plane yesterday, I figured I could take a few more today.

In the air...

Shortly after taking off in YOW (Ottawa), this was the view from my window. It was a short and sweet flight to Montreal, and now waiting for my flight to Moncton. Always a pleasure going home, even though this trip is a short one.

Please change your signs! I don't want snow!

I was walking down Preston St today and noticed these signs above Preston Square. Who wants snow on April 3rd?? It's now Spring, please change your signs!! As you can see in the photos, there's no signs of winter or snow anymore, and these signs are kind of out of date! They should say, please bring the sunshine or the warmth!

Spring cleaning: At the car wash

This weekend finally feels like it's Spring. It was a very beautiful day, the sun was out, it was still a bit cool but definitely not freezing, which is a welcome change and made for a great day. As I was running around town today, I figured I'd go through the car wash. It's been a long winter and the car looked like it was coated with a coating of salt and grime, and I was quite happy when I looked at the outside of the car after the wash. Here's a few photos from inside the car wash.

Laurier Ave Bridge

I often drive down Queen Elizabeth Drive, which run parallel to part of the Rideau canal in Ottawa. Some of the bridges that span the canal have intrigued me. I sometimes wonder when they were built, as some seem like giants and others like little fortresses. Tonight I decided to take a quick photo of the bridge that supports Laurier Avenue. As the year progresses, I hope to catch some of the other bridges, especially in evening shots as I find they are often well light. Here is the green monster!

Evening snack

A little snack while watching a movie. Amy borrowed Scott Pilgrim from the library. I often forget that the library has movies, I need to take more advantage of their services. I am a librarian, and I should know this! I under utilize the Ottawa Public Library, I should make a point to walk-in more often. Here's a photo of some sour cream and onion chippies :)

Chip Truck no.1

Some of my friends have made the comment that a lot of my posts are related to food. This post is not withstanding that content, I figured I'd feature a chip truck that's located just outside my office. Since I've been living in Ottawa, I've had food from a handful of chip trucks and I tend to only eat that kind of food about 3-4 times a year. This is my first chip truck adventure this year!

The chip truck couple were looking at me funny, probably cause they saw me taking photos of their truck, but I figure, I'm maybe promoting your food, depending on how good it tastes, just like any ole restaurant reviewer.

So the chip truck is usually located on the corner of Queen and O'Connor. I also find it funny how most chip trucks in town advertise best fries, or best poutine. Read below to see my comments. Here's a few shots of the chip truck:



The food:

I ordered combo no.7, which is a poutine, sausage and pop. I got a Polish sausage. The sausage was quite tasty. It was cooked nicely and opened up to make sure that it was cooked thoroughly. I appreciate it when chip trucks make sure that the food is cooked properly and allow costumers to see it from a quick view that it is properly cooked. Also, by making incisions into the sausage, it allows for the fat to drain out, and you don't get any boiling surprises when you take a bit into the meat. As for the poutine, it was decent. The sauce was quite tasty, a bit salty (but being from the east coast, I like salt in my food.) If you don't like salt, it might be too salty for you. They had a good amount of curds in the poutine, it melted nicely in the middle with the warm gravy. However, I do like squeaky curds, and this one lacked some of that squeakiness. That being said, it still had a good taste. The fries were excellent! If you're looking for good homemade fries, this is a definitely a good spot. They didn't seem to greasy, however that could have been camouflaged by the sauce, but overall, they kept some of their crunch and had a good taste to them. The portion size was good, for a medium size poutine it was definitely big enough and the price was maybe a tad higher than what I'd expect to pay for chip truck food, but overall I'd go back, but that being said, I usually only visit chip trucks about 3-4 times a year, I'd probably go for a different experience.

Street view: Painted Ladies of Sparks St.

It's such a nice day today! The sun is out, just around the freezing mark, you can feel that winter is on it's way out. Over the lunch hour, I was walking down Sparks Street, and saw the ladies again, and thought to myself, I have to get them from the ground. Here's a few pictures of the ladies:

midnight reflection

This photo is another attempt to capture light, however through reflection. The pool of water is the reflective matter which is surrounded by snow and pavement. Part of what I hope is a spring thaw, which can't come early enough. The photo didn't come out as good as I had wanted it, but this was my first attempt. I hope to do this again sometime later this year, and see how water can be used to reflect light.